What's with the 0.1 initial release?

I've always wondered why so many people start with a '0.1' or a '0.01' release. I know it's cool to show you know that computers start counting with 0, but then, shouldn't you start counting at '0.0'?

I usually start with 1.1 (for anything non-Perl, or anything that isn't going to CPAN), and 1.100 or 1.1000 for anything that's going to CPAN. I always try to have my source control system take care of generating the version numbers for me. (It tends to make less mistakes than I do, and why do something by hand if you can automate it? It's more fun to spend an hour or two to figure out how to have the version control system generate the numbers for you than to do 5 seconds of manual work with each release ;-))

Comment on What's with the 0.1 initial release?

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Re: What's with the 0.1 initial release? by Thilosophy (Curate) on Dec 28, 2004 at 11:00 UTC
I've always wondered why so many people start with a '0.1' or a '0.01' release. Traditionally, a 0.x version number indicates an early release, an unfinished beta. Once the project becomes stable, it is usually upgraded to 1.x.	[reply]